Punch: Punch (32.1857)

February 21, 1857.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 73

THE PANTOMIME AND THE WORKHOUSE.

R, Chute is the manager of the Bath theatre; and,
a few clays ago, in the proverbial darkness of a
manager's mind—(a playhouse manager !)—sent to
the Bath Union an invitation, through the Guardians,
to the pauper children, to come and see the morning
performance of Jack and the Bean-Stalk, What,
a hurst of sunlight broke through the dulness of
the Union, as the thoughtless little sinners pre-
pared themselves in their workhouse best to be at
the playhouse-door at 2 p. m. ! It was, however,
doubtless right that their impatient vanity should
be rebuked; and rebuked it was by the pastoral
dignity of the Church, lay authority grimly assisting.

Even whilst the children were dressing—(for
Mb,. Bush, the chairman had all heedlessly accepted
the invitation for the little ones !)—the Board of
Guardians was gathering. At length the Board
met, and delivered itself.

The Bev. Me. Newnham thought the idea
" monstrous that the Guardians should introduce
the children under their care to habits of early
dissipation! " (Jack and the Bean-Stalk at 2 p.m.)

Me. Henry Dallaway agreed with Mr. Newn-
ham. Dallaway had once seen the Serious Family
in London: the most disgusting thing he ever saw.
(In the piece, cant is gibbeted, and hypocrisy torn
to tatters. A very disgusting exhibition, Mr.
Dallaway.)

Mr. Murch, with a worldly-mindedness much to be lamented for pomps and vanities,
said—" Heaven knew that, these chfldren had little enough to gratify them, and indeed little
society of any kind." (Why should pauper children be gratified ? Poverty, in fact, has no
chddhood.)

Mr. Barnes spoke for the children and the Pantomime. Mr. W. Lewis liked to be a
child once a-year. A pantomime was a childish amusement, and when people were there,
people were all childish together. (The Bev. Mr. Newnham silently wondered where Mr. W.
Lewis thought to go to ?)

Finally, it was agreed that the workhouse children should not be permitted to see Jack
and the Bean-Stalk ! But children, on wicked pleasures bent, are quick in their doings. T he
little things of the Bath Union, fluttering with sinful emotions, had dressed themselves, and
under due guidance (authority having been given by weak Me. Bush) had departed for that
Temple of Sin, the theatre. The "poor children," says the Bath Journal (but how spiritually
rich with such workhouse pastors!) "hadreached the very door of the theatre before the
counter-order denying them the anticipated pleasure came to then; conductors."

Of course, the chddren, in the ignorance of their disappointment, returned to their
prison-house to mope, and sob, and cry. They could not be expected to feel properly grateful
to the Bev. Mr. Newnham, whose Christian tenderness must have been sweetly rewarded
by the bitter distress of the little ones. It is said, however, that the Bev. Gentleman took
an early opportunity of "improving" the matter for the benefit of his flock of lambs.

Among other things, it is said he bade the infant paupers to rejoice in the misery and
helplessness that had brought them under the guidance and ministration of the Guardians
of Bath. Had it been their trying lot to be born princes and princesses of the House of
Hanover, great would have been their temptations; and, doubtless, great their backslidings ;
since—it was upon record—the Queen herself had more than once taken her little ones,
beginning with the Princess Boyal and ending with Prince Arthur, to see the abomina-
tion of a pantomime played in the morning at a Temple of Disorder called the Adelphi. Now
they—the chosen children of the Bath Union—had been stopped at the very doors.

Well, it will go luckily with some sour-faced Christians if, with the fullest belief in their
own right of entry of Paradise, they are not "stopped at the very doors."

%zxz Mlofos a Patfjettc Ballao, to oe Sato or cSung 05 all gooo
dnjrtsttatxs m tlje totteo 3&mgoom;—

Now all fond parents who delight i Thus, or on this wise thinking, lo !

Young people's joy to see.
Come listen to a tale of spite,

Or brutal bigotry.
How hypocrites, to be amused,

Declaring 'tis a crime,
Poor little folks the treat refused
To see a Pantomime.

There is a playhouse in Bath town,

As may be known to you,
A theatre of some renown;

There is a workhouse, too.
Jack should be no dull boy at Bath,

With truth if one might say,
That if he work in workhouse hath,

In playhouse he hath play.

The theatre's lessee
Bade all the workhouse schools to go

Unto his playhouse free.
By day to see the_ Pantomime,

And so their minds recruit
With pleasure for a little time :
Good luck to Mr. Chute !

He to the_ Chairman of the Board,

His invitation sent,
The Chairman sent the Master word,

Then to his colleagues went,
Whom he informed of what he'd done,

And that, with joy elate,
The children, waiting for the fun,

Por their consent did wait.

A Parson, one of the " elect"

No doubt, in self-conceit,
Did, in a strain of cant, object

Unto the children's treat.
The playhouse is a sinful place,

Howled this fanatic mean,
TV ould he, or any of his race,

Howl thus before the Queen ?

A lay snob, who, upon the stage,

Had seen himself portrayed
In a sham saint, with wrath and rage

Never, since then, allayed,
With Reverend Mr. Mawworm did

In sentiments agree:
In short, the chddren were forbid

The Pantomime to see.

Meanwhile the children, dreaming not

Of disappointment sore,
Had been sent on, and now had got

Unto the playhouse door,
When lo ! the counter-order came,

And back they had to trudge.
Shame on you, Puritans ! oh, shame,

Their harmless mirth to grudge.

Then little faces beamed with joy,

Two imles upon then way,
As they supposed, each girl and boy,

About to see the play.
Their little cheeks with tears were wet,

As back again they went,
Balked by a sanctimonious set

Led by a Beverend Gent.

And if such Beverend Gents as he

Could get the upper hand,
Ah, what a hateful tyranny

Would override the land !
That we may never see that time,

Down with the canting crew
That would, out of their Pantomime,

Poor little children do !

A WONDEBPUL WEAPON.

A Gallant Officer, in writing to a contem-
porary, describes himself by the following sig-
nature : — "A Lieutenant - Colonel whose

sword is his bread, but would not neglect
his mother's grey hairs eor a marshal's
baton."

We should like to have a look at the extra-
ordinary sword possessed by the Lieutenant-
Colonel. What a wonderful weapon! It is
nutritious, voluntary, and dutiful. Its master
eats it without consuming it; but notwithstanding
that, it would not neglect the grey hairs of his
mother. What peculiar attention it is in the
habit of showing to them we can only guess;
perhaps the kind of service that is rendered to
grey hair by a lead comb. This sword would also
appear to be capable of wielding a marshal's
baton; a feat only comparable with that of the
celebrated dish which is related to have run
away with a spoon.

Knowledge of Uncommon Things.

The Prench satirist, inveighing against the
extravagance of the day, says, " Le superflji est
maintenant le ne'cessaire." This maybe said to
be literally the case with our young Lords, when
a gold latch-key is pronounced in a Court of
Law to be a necessary for an Infant.

plain speaking.

Sir Benjamin Hall, losing all patience one
deputation-day with the Board of Works, ex-
claimed quite petulantly, " I tell you what,
Gentlemen, I would take the Babes in the Wood,
and swear I would make with them a better
Board than you are ! "

Vol. 32.

3—2